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Need help for our 5 night vacation in DENVER

It will be our first family trip to the Denver area (in place of going to New York City) during this coming springbreak. We'll be landing on Friday at different times and terminals so we have to stay close to the airport for the first night and drive out on Saturday to BOULDER for 2 nights and then drive to downtown Denver on Monday to stay at the Grand Hyatt for 2 nights before flying back to San Francisco on the following Wednesday.at noon.

IS DOWNTOWN worth 2 nights?
Our family appreciates good foodie restaurants, some shopping and urban sightseeing, I would appreciate any good suggestions/tips. Is downtown more enjoyable on weekdays or over a weekend? Do we need a car to enjoy downtown? Is it worth driving out/taking a taxi to the Cherry Creek neighborhood? My wife and college age daughter love shopping.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS vs COLORADO SPRINGS?
If there's not a whole lot to enjoy in downtown, we would consider one night in Glenwood Springs or Colorado Springs instead (we don't do extensive nature hikes). I would appreciate any feedback, thank you.

Are you wanting to stay in urban areas? Because compared to SF, most cities don't rate, IMHO. We live in Denver, and it's a great city, but I wouldn't say it's a great downtown really.

Cherry Creek JW Marriott would be a better choice. Shopping in that area is the best in town. The CC mall has the big stores, but CC North has wonderful boutiques and restaurants. Easy to walk all over it.

Are you visiting Boulder for prospective students to see CU? It is a beautiful campus. One of our favorites for its architecture and setting.

What about one night near the airport, one night in Boulder, two nights in Glenwood Springs or (better yet) Aspen, then a final night in Cherry Creek.. Or, if you can, drive to Boulder for the first night. It is about 35 minutes from the airport.

Spring break will be very busy at the ski resorts, and hotels will be pricey, though. However, Aspen also has awesome shopping (if you are rolling in $$$).

If you don't want to drive to Aspen, stay in Boulder and Cherry Creek. Then do day-trips from there to see the sites, like Red Rocks.

Thank you Peaceout, we tend to like urban surroundings like Manhattan where we often go for short vacations. What would you compare downtown Denver to? We only know Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Wasington DC, Chicago and Houston. It seems that you would recommend spending one night in Cherry Creek instead of downtown Denver. What can my son & I do in the CC area when my wife & daughter shop? I believe it's close to the high tech area.

Aspen seems even further than Glenwood Springs and I would imagine that we would need snow tires/chain to get there in the last week of March.
Can you suggest what we to do in Glenwood Springs for 2 nights if we're not into nature hikes? We don't have any specific plan on what to od in Boulder either other than to enjoy the student town atmosphere and maybe some easy hikes. Any great easy hike suggestion?

I'll check out what Red Rocks is all about. Thanks again for your helpful input.

I love Denver and visit a couple of times a year with our kids there.
The art museum is just wonderful, and the restaurant there, Pallettes, is truly excellent.
LOTS of great food in Denver. Lots of fun places to shop and explore--the Highlands area has one of the best cheese shops I have ever enjoyed. It also has Little Man ice cream, and some really fun and interesting restaurants and cute shops--becoming very gentrified.
Pearl Street in Denver is a lot of fun--one of my favorite shops is Five Green Boxes (there are actually 2 of them). Good food there also.
Broadway has a lot of antique shops.
The Museum of Natural History is good. There might be basketball or hockey.
In Boulder go see the Celestial Seasonings "factory"--fun tour for sure. Two nights in Boulder? One night and two partial days might be enough. There is a really nice butterfly pavilion in Westminster, on the way to Boulder.
I am not a huge fan of the Springs--I would go up into the mountains, but it will be high ski season and probably (hopefully) a lot of snow, and expensive at ski areas. Glenwood might not be so pricey. Colorado does a great job of keeping their roads open unless it is just completely dumping. If the chain law is in effect for cars, you shouldn't be on the road anyway.
YOu could actually just go as far as Breckenridge for a cute little ski town.
You mention that Cherry Creek is near the tech center--that would probably be Park Meadows, a shopping center on steroids for sure.
I think the downtown area of Denver is interesting--LoDo, and that area.
Top Denver restaurants for us--Fruition, Restaurant Kevin Taylor, Barolo Grill, Luce, Mizuna, and for economical French La Centrale. There's Ollie's at Cherry Creek.

DAX - you asked about other things to do in Glenwood Springs if not in Denver or Boulder - the hot springs pool and spa is a great way to spend a day.

I'm with PeaceOut that there is not a lot of great shopping in downtown - there is some, just not a lot of it. There are, however, a LOT of good local restaurants in downtown and very nearby: Zengo, Bistro Vendome, Osteria Marco, Linger are a few that come to mind. I'll add another vote to Gretchen's for La Centrale - local, reasonable French restaurant that is always good.

I believe you can tour the Rockies stadium, Coors field if your son and you have interests in sports and depending on when you are going to be here in March. You can walk the LoDo area of downtown for some small shops, plenty of restaurants and bars. There are some great old churches around downtown as well if you're into architecture. Plenty of museums large & small - Denver Art Museum, Firefighter's Museum, Molly Brown House and I'm sure others I'm not thinking of. Denver Mint offers free tours - sign up well in advance if you want to do that - they fill up fast.

I would suggest a night or two in the mountains - nothing like the Rockies in Colorado. Aspen is nice if you have the money and would hit your requests for shopping and foodies. Breckenridge is another nice ski town that is walkable and generally a little more affordable than Aspen.

DAX, was traveling today. Will give more thoughts tomorrow. It's fun to introduce people to Denver and environs.

You can see there are lots of things to do here. Denver is more spread out, like your entire Bay Area, only it runs north and south, beween the mountains and plains. I don't know what city I'd compare it to, though. Colorado, in general, has a lot of affinity with California's lifestyle. That's a very good question. Maybe someone else has an answer.

We like Boulder a lot, having lived there a few years. If you decide not to stay in a mountain town, I think Boulder is a close second, and I do suggest two nights there if you are interested in what it offers.

Boulder sits below the gorgeous Flatirons mountains. Drives into the various canyons are interesting (especially Eldorado canyon). Chautauqua Park is a must see and has great hikes (except March is iffy for hiking) and a great restaurant. From there you can drive up Flagstaff to Lookout Mountain, so you can see a panoramiv view of the Continenal Divide. NCAR is there (where Woody Allen filmed some of Sleeper). Shopping is very good, and dining is outstanding. I will be there soon for lunch, so I have been investigating where to eat next, there are so many good places. The Kitchen, on the Pearl Street mall, is wonderful. So is the Teahouseww.

If you stay in Denver, definitely stay in Cherry Creek North. Not on Colorado Blvd, even though those hotels claim to be in Cherry Creek. CCN is very close to downtown. You can take Speer Blvd downtown, and ogle the Denver Country Club neighborhood and gorgeous homes. From CCN, you could easily take your son to any number of places in Denver. You will be fairly centrally located. The tech center is really nothing to see. Just a nice enough industrial park that could be in any city.

Red Rocks is a beautiful natural ampitheater in a slanting red rock formation, on I-70 west of town, near Morrison. Cool dinosaur fossils there. We would visit it in college geology classes, and take little ones on field trips there. Musicians love to perform in the venue there.

More later. I am sure fmpden will have ideas for you, too. Your biggest dcision is where to stay.

Gretchen and tarfan gave you more good ideas. There is a lot to do here. You only have 5 nights, though. Can you add more days?

Colorado had a lot of good choices for a couple of days outside of Denver.

I lived in Denver years ago - (late 60's) - and it has really built up. Have visited numerous times since then - and do like both the Art Museum and the Natural History Museum - and the old classic - the wild west adorned Buckhorn Exchange - where I think they still serve a good steak.

Hey - had a part time summer job while in Denver - delivering produce for the main/local fruit and vegetable company/distributor - and always loved the Buckhorn delivery, as well as to the Brown Palace in downtown Denver, etc. http://www.brownpalace.com/

It was a fun - but crazy place to work - as the three Italian brothers who owned it had big hearts - and they would give parolees jobs, as well as ex-marines, a guy who trained dogs at the track but lost all his money betting, a couple street tough Hispanics, and moi the college student.

Hey - we all carried knives to prepare the produce (learned how to tease the spring and it was essentially a six inch long switchblade - that you could open with a flick of the wrist but it was legal
- AND a couple of times I thought there was going to be a real brawl (lots of testosterone flowing/bragging going on - the Marines claiming they were tougher than cons, yada yada) - but cooler heads prevailed and everybody jumped into the trucks to deliver the produce. Thankfully - as I didn't even know which side I was going to wind up on had it "gone down".

A couple? of hours from Denver is "The Summit - where people have mentioned Breckinridge - a Victorian themed ski town - which is nice - but we prefer the little/nearby town of Frisco - and really liked the Frisco Lodge/B & B. http://www.friscolodge.com/ You can also press on another hour? to Glenwood Springs but if you went that far - I would go the additional hour to beautiful (albeit pricey) Aspen.

Boulder is also a great place to visit (less than an hour from Denver) - and I also like Colorado Springs - (hour plus - assuming you dodge commute traffic) especially the cute town of Manitou Springs, the gateway to Pikes Peak - and near the Garden of the Gods - a fun place to drive/walk. http://manitousprings.org/

And another old "stomping grounds" - the AF Academy - is also worth a visit - especially the beautiful chapel. http://tinyurl.com/aropnfn

You are all so very helpful, thank you! I really appreciate all the great details. As it stands now we will do 2 nights in Boulder, 1 night in North CC and 1 night in Glenwood Springs (wheather permitting) or downtown Denver (not in that order). We'd need more details on what to do in Glenwood Springs besides the springs/spa considering hiking maybe iffy due to freezing wheather/black ice.

Our daughter will land at 9pm from LAX while we land at 4pm so for convenience we have to stay near the airport for the first night. I wished we could extend our time but our kids only allow us 5 nights. We're getting more excited about our trip now that we have all the fantastic info about each area. Please keep them coming!

OK in that case we are going back to doing 2 nights for Boulder and 2 nights for Denver. Our trip is more for having a nice time together rather than sightseeing per se.
I'm thinking that we should only keep the car for Boulder and use taxis for CCN & downtown (good idea?) so we don't have to find parking spaces/garages.

JW Marriott raised their room prices from $225 to $309 as we're trying to book our rooms online, a bit misleading and upsetting but I suppose they have no competition in Cherry Creek North?

I really like your Barolo Grill recommendation for Piemontese food, is there any other authentic regional restaurant? We prefer excellent specific cooking (french/italian/thai) rather than mixed bag/east west fusion/steakhouses. We don't eat Japanese so Mizuna is not for us. I can't find Luce's website at all (any link?). If there is no other recommendation, which one should we lean towards for our second dinner? Kevin Taylor (Denver's top chef?),Bistrò Vendome (how good is their franco-italian cooking?), Le Centrale (good quality/value ratio?), or Osteria Marco (for salumi & pizza?). I notice that most of these places are not in CCN, is it a good idea to walk one way to downtown? One website suggests that downtown is just a $5 taxi ride from CCN (sounds walkable).

If you have a yen for the best pizza go to Marco's Coal Fired Pizza on Larimer (maybe--near Coors Field). It is plain delicious, and he did go to Italy to learn the techniques. He also serves limoncello marinated wings that are TDF.
Fruition isn't a specific "cuisine" but truly excellent. And again, don't overlook Pallettes--it is also a Kevin Taylor restaurant. The Barolo Grill owners take their staff to italy every year for a "refresher" course.
Try the little restaurants in the Highlands for lunch. Vendue is one, I think.
Bid for your hotel on Priceline or Hotwire. The Oxford Hotel downtown--or the Molly Brown are beautiful. Good value hotels are at the Tech Center and you could ride the light rail from there to midtown. GOOD light rail.

Dax, yes there is an alternative to JW Marriott. The Cherry Creek Inn is a small boutique hotel. You'll find the rooms smaller but also less expensive. It's smack dab in the center of Cherry Creek and has a small restaurant. I'll try to find the website for you.

Downtown is not walkable from C.C.N. and I'm sure it'll cost more than $5.00 for a taxi.

I live in CCN and still couldn't get the name right. It's The Inn at Cherry Creek on Clayton. The website is www.innatcherrycreek.com

I really don't know how much a taxi would cost, but it's about 15 minutes from downtown to Cherry Creek North. There is also excellent bus service, but I know some people would never consider taking a bus.

Thanks for your good input Gretchen, history traveller and Marty. I will check out Mizuna and your other recs. I'll take a second look at Pallette for lunch, I believe people whined a lot about service at Pallette if the food is that good. I tried to check the Inn at CC room prices/availability but the website is not letting me check March at all. I'll try it again later after work.

BTW, there are some good restaurants in Cherry Creek North just not any excellent ones. That said, there are several I prefer over Luca's which IMO used to be great but now is a bit stuffy and over-priced.

Mizuna, Luca's, Fruition and Barolo Grill are about half way between CCN and downtown with Fruition and Barolo Grill being closer to CCN. Both are on 6th Street. Fruition and Barolo are my favorities. Fruition for originality and Barolo for great regional cooking which is not easy to find in Denver.

Also in CCN and one of the best IMO is La Merise on 2nd Street. Typical French Bistro ambience and similar menu. This is one of our favorites in CCN. New to CCN is True Food Kitchen. I've only eaten there once and was not particularly impressed. They're concept is healty food. That may be the problem I had. It was almost good. For hamburgers and such the Cherry Cricket is v. good.

Correction, La Merise is on 3rd Street and the Cherry Creek Grill, Piatti's, True Food Kitchen, North and the Cherry Cricket are on 2nd Street. IMO any of these would be a better choice than Kona Grill or Brio. K.G and Brio aren't bad just not as good.

Thanks all, this is just what I was hoping for. I have just checked out all the menus and pictures, so many great choices. I plan my trips around the good meals and they don't necessarily have to be fine dining. In general we tend to enjoy non corporate chain restaurants but some of the corporate chains may be fun for lunch and happy hour before a late dinner since we eat small portions.

I'm still considering the second dinner besides Barolo Grill and am leaning towards Bistro Vendome for their french dishes, but would love to hear more opinions from people who have been there. It seems that Mizuna is very highly regarded in Denver but the menu just doesn't appeal to me except for the gamey ostrich and Colorado lamb which may just be perfectly great. I know some of you may be laughing about me reading the menu now, but hey dinner is my highlight and I only have 2 nights in Denver.

Thanks Peaceout I'm totally sold with both of your recommendations in Boulder especially the Kitchen, had not expected such places in Boulder. My statement about ostrich/lamb might be misleading since our family like gamey food but not looking for steakhouses. Good to know about those places though.

If you are looking for a "gamey" dish, then you should probably go to The Fort--all kinds of wild meat in an amazingly beautiful setting near the Red Rocks Amphitheater.
If it's a steak house, Elway's is better than Capital Grill and Shanahan's, IMO, and isn't all "steaks", but does have the Colorado lamb.

Gretchen: bison & elk are right down our alley, great idea! the Fort gives more reason to drive out to Red Rock, hope they let us share their huge portions. Have you eaten there? Ever tried their $28 appetizer tray?

Marty: I'll check out riff & oak, their menus look good for lunch. One thing that strikes me is how their places don't really match their names & menu. I still can't imagine what Boulder is like, I expected it to be more earthy & bohemian. My wife's cousin from Brooklyn evolved into a charismatic earthy soul guru after attending CU in Boulder and moved to Santa Fe.

DAX, let us know your impression of Boulder after visiting. It is a mixed bag, and very different than its hippie days in the 60s/70s. It seems CU has recruited more students from the East than the West.

A few more generic tips:
Drink WATER. Colorado is a semi-arid (read DRY) climate as well as a mile high so you want to stay hydrated.
Check out 5280 magazine online for lots of good info on Denver. I'd paste the link but haven't figured out how to do that on my iPad.
If you are on twitter or Facebook, search for denver or boulder for pages/tweets that may have info for you.
If you are on groupon or living social, sign up to get emails on denver or boulder deals. There are sometimes some unique experiences and places with good deals (ie today's living social deal for Roberta's chocolate will become my husbands valentines gift(cheap, I know, but he loves little places like Roberta's and the deal just makes it nicer for me).

Glad you found the tips helpful. Your trip must be coming up here soon. Our family also likes to plan around some restaurant meals though we tend to look for them on DDD (diners, drive-ins and dives) as well as roadfood.com. But that was before I found the Fodors forums

For skiing, keep in mind that Eldora is no Tahoe by far. It is, however, close to Boulder and a much easier drive than any of the Summit County ski resorts. Eldora is by no means a resort - just a close-in day ski area. It is often quite windy as well. If you're going to be in the mountains, you might as well plan a ski day at one of the Summit County options.

I don't know if I or anyone else mentioned the Highlands area of Denver as a place to eat. Here is a webpage about some. There is also a great ice cream place called Little Man's. And there is a wonderful cheese shop called St. Killian's. This is not Highlands Ranch, but a rapidly gentrifying (or already gentrified) part of Denver sort of above Mile High. We had breakfast at a cute place called Venue, I think. Lola has a terrific view of downtown Denver. Lots of cute shops also.
And don't forget Pearl Street for eclectic shopping.http://www.denver.com/restaurants/highlands.html

Loveland Ski Area, at the Eisenhower tunnel, is closer than the Summit County areas. It can get windy there, but otherwise is a good place to go for the day. Winter Park is also an option, and many do it as a day-trip.

Thanks everyone for your helpful info.
Ideally we only want to ski if it's an hour drive from Boulder or so and if we can rent our equipment there. I was hoping Eldora would do, but is it rinky dink, dumpy, or the lifts are too slow/old? How bad is the wind? Bone chilling cold wind?

I checked out the Highlands website, my 3 sons is closed, maybe we can consider Vita roofdeck for Happy Hour.Thanks

what level of skiiers are you? I may have given you a "pass" with the Tahoe reference. Eldora or others may "do" for you. If you really like to "ski" I suggest driving another half hour to at least Winter Park, or Keystone. You need to match it up.

DAX, I haven't skied at Loveland or Eldora for many years, so am not a good source. I believe that CU's ski team still trains at Eldora, and it's better than nothing, if you don't want to drive further.

Driving to Loveland from Boulder-- probably 1.5 hours, best case. Probably add another 30 minutes if you are going to Summit County areas, or Winter Park. If you are advanced skiers, I'd recommend Winter Park/Mary Jane.

When you are here, decide based on the weather. Big snowstorm on the I-70 corridor, and you may want to stick with Eldora. Definitely avoid driving I-70 for a day-trip on a weekend: Saturday mornings going West, and Sunday evenings going East are a nightmare of traffic.

I never saw your dates of travel. Hope it is not this weekend. We are expecting a foot from Friday through Saturday. It is going up from the south, southwest, which means the foothills will be hammered with a couple of feet.

The Unisys weather model is showing major moisture in our area Saturday late afternoon and evening, and strong northerly winds. This site seems to be pretty accurate, at least on these short range forecasts.

Might be a good day to hunker down at home, but as you say PeaceOut, guess we'll see!

You're right, Nelson. We are getting a nice steady snow, with small flakes right now at home in Denver. Now I see it, I believe it! haha. If you live in Denver, you know what I mean. So many storms go around us, or sneak up on us when no one predicted it.

And it is a great day to hunker down, in front of the fireplace, with my laptop. Also plan to clean out my closet and make risotto.

Hmm, I'll just throw the skiing option to the kids and let them decide if they would rather skip Denver for skiing instead. Thanks for all your help. We'll definitely avoid weekend traffic on 70. . Sorry to hear about your hunkering the bad weather.

Still wondering to myself if 2 day skiing in the summit county is worth giving up Denver for.

It is hard to tell. We have a lot of drifting both front and back but I would guess we make the 10" or better mark. We are only responsible for the front step and the deck. Someone else shovels the driveway. We can see lights across the gully so it is done or nearly so.

We are also going to be in the mountains the end of the month--and actually it has been our most visited time when our kids were in school. There is more preciptitation in the mountains then--because, as Willy suggested (about the money) THAT is when you WANT the snow.
I have driven to the Denver airport many times in a snowstorm. The colorado highway people do a GREAT job of keeping the highways open. The chain law (and we have travelled wit chains) is often for trucks. Please just keep up with the weather report.

As it turned out we only received a trace of snow here in Fort Collins. We had been hoping for a big dump, but it stopped falling by noon. Shows the strange localized nature of these storms, sometimes 10-20 miles can make a huge difference in snowfall amounts.

The chain requirement for truck is absolute. In fact you will see areas set aside for trucks to chain up and later to unchain. The requirement for passenger vehicles is chains or adequate snow tires. About the only time that is even enforced is when your are in the ditch and the highway patrol decides that your bald tires were inadequate. That will get you a ticket.

This was a storm out of the SW which the when we get most of our snow along the front range. We are about 15 miles south of downtown Denver and did get more snow than downtown Denver. Rather now it is very sunny and warm and it will be gone, except for the piles, by Thursday when it will hit 60.

Yes, we have so many micro-climates here. Always more snow south of us than in the city.
My relatives always think we are buried in snow all winter. Uh, no, we are begging for moisture in central Denver most winters.

Yes, lots of our storms really pound the plains east of Denver. I-70 gets icy, the wind blows, visibility is nonexistent, and the road gets closed. It is not fun to get stuck in one of those storms. My sis and I were transporting a VW bug from St Louis to Denver and got stuck in one of those solid ice storms. It was an adventure, to say the least. Actually that little car was pretty good in the snow and ice, but its heater was awful when the car wasn't accelerating.

Sorry I have been busy with work and social events over the weekend. I appreciate all of your chiming in to update me on the great Colorado skiing. I haven't had much time but I managed to read through all the new postings. I will research Winter Park to understand what it has, we're not picky about where as long as the snow condition is good. It's more about family time together. Hopefully the snow is still good then and maybe the road will be cleared and easy to drive. Otherwise, we are used to driving my SUV that comes with an all year snow tires. I suppose I need to change my rental reservation to a similar vehicle with snow tires.

Peace out: Thanks for your generous offer for the WP coupons, I may take you up on it if my kids/wife agree to skiing. Both my son & daughter are about to go through their quarter finals next week so we will be arriving on Friday March 22 staying one night at the airport then heading to Boulder for two nights, then ski or Denver. Great to hear that you get to come out to my territory for Easter (How long?). Let me know if I can answer any question or if you need a favor. I will be back in SF by then as my sister will be visiting from Europe.

I really would not worry about getting a SUV for this type of trip. We have done fine with front wheel drive vehicles in the mountains, and it really is true that they clear the roads well.
I am not a fan of the road to Winter Park when the areas down the road are not that far and an easy drive.

The road to Winter Park is Berthoud Pass. We have driven it regularly since the 70s. People assume it is worse than the I-70 Eisenhower tunnel, which we think is dead wrong. It looks like that would be the case, but not our experience driving it all these years.

On the Pass, you have more control over your own vehicle. You can go at your own speed. No tourists flying down the hill behind you, many going way too fast on slick conditions. No long uphill climb on icy road, which means some cars can't get traction again after having to stop in traffic on the hill. Also, overheating in the summer.

We avoid Eisenhower tunnel like the plague.

The pass is very well-maintained, is built with passing lanes, snow barriers, and guard rails. Of course, it can be tricky in a blizzard, as is anywhere. We have probably had a handful of extremely slow drives on the Pass, but our kids have had scarier drives on I-70.

Just had to put in my 2 cents' worth, as I get tired of hearing people say the same thing about Berthoud.

PS Another difference, once you are in Winter Park, is that it is not a collection of ski areas all plopped down into one county, next to Wendy's, Target, outlet malls, etc. Blech. WP is more a 'down home' old West place, without the slick appeal many are looking for. It has wide open spaces. That's why we like it. End of lecture.

It was closed Sunday. Probably for the third or fourth time this year. CDOT is very quick to close I-70 on the eastern plains. They have learned their lessons. Twenty years or more back, they would not close it and then would have miles and miles of stranded cars and trucks needing rescue and, of course, hindering the clearing of I-70. Now they close it pretty quick. Get the vehicles off so the snowplows have room to work. Much more efficient and gets the traffic moving quicker after the storm has passed.

PS - No such thing as year around snow tires. Snow tires are unique to themselves. You are probably referring to all season tires which are common.

Good point. I-70 does close rather regularly, including the tunnel and sometimes all the way through Vail Pass. In fact, Vail Pass closes more often than Berthoud, which I don't understand because it doesn't look challenging at all. Must be the way the storms hit it.

Remember back in the day when we all drove Loveland Pass? Now that will take years off your life! haha.

DAX, let me know as soon as you decide about skiing, for coupons for WP or Copper. I have them on my laptop and can email to you. No one else needs them, so you are welcome to them. I can probably give you 4 at either or both areas.

I leave March 28, and won't have access to my laptop then. So be in touch with me by the 24th?

We had a surprise snowstorm last night in Denver and the mountains. No one predicted it. It was pretty our last night. Bad drive this morning. But good skiing and nice moisture. It is a pretty good year to try skiing in Colorado!

Thanks for your offer to help in SF. Both my sisters live there, one in the city and one in Marin. And my son is meeting me there, so I will be good!

Definitely, I'll let you know if we decide to ski peaceout. I suppose weather will play a role too since we're not crazy about driving/skiing in the blizzard...after all that talk about snow storm..ha3x. Thanks again everyone.

Hi Peaceout, it looks like both my kids are looking forward to do some skiing so I would love to take you up on your offer for Winterpark. I would appreciate it if you can send it to dax1970 at hotmail.com. Thank you.

I went on the Winterpark resort website which promotes a hotel 4 miles from the resort with complimentary transportation into the ski resort. I haven't really studied it but just want to get an opinion on where would be the best place to stay.. Currently I have a full size car reserved, do I need to switch it to an SUV if we're planning to ski on Monday (possibly Tuesday if the skiing is good)? Should I just stay in Denver for a better nightlife/dinner?

I don't think you need a SUV--even if there is snow. If there is SO much snow, you probably won't go anywhere anyway!! The shuttle to the slopes might be attractive for parking. I'm not familiar with that situation there.

Just to second Gretchen. If the snow is deep enough for 4 wheel then you ought not to be on the road, especially if your experience with 4 wheel is limited. A recently accident analysis suggested that you wre about three times more likely to slide off the road with 4 wheel than you are with a standard two wheel. Vehicle.

DAX, you got it. Will send soon. Glad you can use. How many skiers do you have?

Which hotel? There is a free shuttle throughout Winter Park, but the hotel's is probably faster because it's direct.

Our favorite hotel/resort is Devil's Thumb Ranch. It is relatively pricey, but it is has a gorgeous collection of Old West artifacts and is done in beautiful stone and wood architecture. Everything there is eco-friendly, too.

Peaceout: Thanks, there are 4 skiers and I appreciate your hotel restaurant tips in WP as well. However, we are now thinking, for the sake of night life, maybe we should stay in downtown Denver and drive to the resort. Is it too far to stay in Denver and ski in WP? I know we're wishing to do too many things in such a short visit. Our kids are getting excited about the trip now.

Fmpden: that's good to know, so we should just stick to a front wheel drive then.

Just to stir up the pot. If day tripping from Denver then the Summit Cty resorts (Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper) tend to be more convenient than Winter Park. For Winter Park you have to go over Bertha Pass which is two lanes and can be slow. For Summit Cty it is I-70 and the tunnel through the divide instead of the hair pin turns on the climb to Bertha. Winter Park has good skiing but slightly more difficult to get there.

I am sorry PeaceOut you are the one who wants to turn it into a debate. When the OP was overnight in Winter Park I thought it was fine but if they are driving from Denver for two days, then the situation has changed. It still is an easier drive to Summit County than dealing with Berthoud Pass especially for someone who may not be experienced with mountain driving. And then there is the occasional speed trap at Empire. All three ski areas are basically similar.

Peaceout: I tried to send you a personal thank you response but hotmail would not let me send out any message from my account even after reentering my password several times. It's still allowing me to receive messages just none outgoing. I tried sending you another one but that's also stuck in the red outgoing box, unless they both actually went out to you? In any case thank you again for the discount coupons, you are a generous Fodorite indeed! I have already printed them all out along with the reservations. We'll let you know if we don't get to use them all.

"But sounds like you have more stamina than me! ".
Not really, honestly I'm just trying to be well prepared for our kids who are getting excited about doing everything on this trip, so I need to study all our options.

I just checked the weather forecast for this weekend in Denver, holy smokes!
It seems that the weatherman kept lowering the temperatures, below freezing and snowing in downtown on Saturday. Not exactly sightseeing temperatures but on the other hand we've never experienced skiing in 1-14 degree temperatures. It seems unreal, we can't even begin to imagine it, we were already skiing in our T shirts at Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago. I can only hope that the weatherman is wrong.

Is this normal for this time of year? Do you all wear longjohns walking around town? Wool coat everyday? My wife and daughter are bringing their rubber sole boots for daily wear, gloves & hats too? I'm thinking that we may as well just ski, but I can't picture sitting on the lift chair in 10-14 degrees plus wind factor. Do people actually ski when it gets that cold? Triple quadruple layers?

Peaceout: My wife prefers to stay at a ski in ski out facility if we stay in the mountain. I just checked lodging at the resort itself, they are completely sold out, that means people do ski. The Devilsthumbranch has plenty availability but it is even further into the mountain beyond the resort. Is that driveable with a front wheel drive?

Yes, Devils Thumb is reachable with front-wheel drive. We drove it many times in front-wheel sedans. It is a rather long (and very pretty) dirt and gravel two-lane road, though, from the highway. Do they have a shuttle to the ski area? If you really don't want to drive in the snow, that road could be challenging, I have to say. Personally, I think it's worth it, to get away from the hubbub of the ski area.

Hey PeaceOut, even a discount is wonderful. AND if you could spare some for Copper, I would be grateful. Our son got some discounts from Liftopia, but other son's pass is going to run out lacking a few days while we are there. I would be very grateful for several to Copper!!

Peaceout: thank you so much for everything! I will print the Copper vouchers. I have been buried at work as I'm leaving town. We will be arriving in Denver on Friday March 22 for 5 nights. I'll let you know which coupons I use. Thanks to you, we are looking forward to this winter adventure.

Back to the original question: Is it better/faster/shorter time to drive to Copper or Winter Park? WP is supposed to be 68miles/90 minute drive, but I expect it to be 2 hrs in less favorable weather? Is it easier to drive to Copper in variable weather?

I can't help laughing at myself,I was SO clueless about weather unpredictability in Colorado. Originally we planned to spend spring break in London and we naively moved it to Denver for easier access as our kids only gave us 5 nights. That said, we will make the best out of the winter wonderland weather

We used to go to CO often this time of year for our kids' spring break--and we often left for the airport in a storm!! I was always sort of amazed that we got there in pretty much the same amount of time--but because it was before DIA (old Stapleton)--we were "in time" but the flight didn't "go" because of the snow. True story!!
We'll be there next week--and thanks again peaceout!!

'Back to the original question: Is it better/faster/shorter time to drive to Copper or Winter Park?"

To answer the question without hedging. All things being equal, both are about equal travel time wise. From downtown Denver, WP is about 69 miles, 2/3s on I-70. Copper Mt is 77 miles but all on I-70. Copper Mt sits at the base of the Vail pass just off I-70 so it is a divided highway the whole distance.

Looks like the snow will be heavier in the mountains - usually is except for up slope conditions which is not in the forecast. Current forecast for Denver is about 4 inch. That is not a problem for Denver or the I-70. But it will slow you down some.

Should be great skiing! It's a good time to give it a try, if you want to ski Colorado.

DAX, you could watch the snow reports and see if the snow is hovering over Summit County or Grand County, then decide which place to go based on their snowfall. Usually one or the other ski area is getting more snow out of the same storm. Lots of fresh snow will mean lots of skiers, as well.

If you have driven to Tahoe from SF to ski several times, you have probably seen winter conditions as bad as any.

We've been stuck in 5-6 hr traffic to Tahoe a few times, but we want to avoid that during our brief stay to Colorado We are looking for a good enjoyable family time, perhaps there will be less skiers on Monday except it is spring break.

Our concerns now is weather we can stand the below freezing temps sitting on the open chair lift. Either resort has closed chairlifts ? We've skied something resorts that have clam like chair lifts that open up at the stations, others have a plain hood and windshield attached to the bar.

No lifts around Denver have any type of shields. A couple of decades ago ago, one lift at Copper had a cam shell that pulled down but was more of a pain than an great benefit. I have often skied in the single digits but you just to prepare for it.

Breckenridge has a 6 person gondola from the public parking lot to the base of Peak 8.

Keystone has a couple of gondolas. One from the base area and one cross mountain. Vail has a gondola off the base in Lion's Head.

Current forecast is for less snow in Denver. Still a little early to tell.

The weather forecast keeps changing, as usual they predict snow when it is actually falling! haha Right now they expect a storm, then a warm up beginning Tuesday.

It looks like the snow will start after DAX arrives tonight. DH is in Winter Park, very excited to have 18 degree weather, because it makes for such great ski conditions. Nice dry and fluffy powder. The 'champagne' powder you find in CO.

Hey we made it to Denver last night after a 2 hour delay! Thank god because today they are cancellng flights at DIA. The weather was so bad last night that we just ate at the hotel restaurant. I tried to pick up our rental car this morning but they're not very encouraging about me driving to Boulder. They said it's very dangerous to drive especially I'm from California, not sure if they are worried about me or their car. So I delayed my car reservation till later, I think we'll brave it when the snow lighten up at midday. People at the hotel kept saying that they would not drive now, so we'll just wait & see how the weather play out.

Welcome to spring time in the Rockies. Pretty typical. I forgot, if you mentioned, where your hotel is. But the advice your getting is good, stay put. The snow will be deeper the further west you go because of increased elevation. This storm has up slope elements. Most forecast have the storm moving out this PM with clearing tomorrow and 50s by Wednesday. Skiing Monday and Tuesday will be great.

I'm sorry to hear you are somewhat stuck. Who knew we'd have a total 'snow day' when you arrive. Even the SAT test is cancelled today.

If you are looking for alternative travel plans, you could take an Amtrak train into the mountains. It goes to Glenwood Springs, and also stops in Fraser, which is the Winter Park area. It leaves from the station in downtown Denver, so you'd need a shuttle to catch the train.

We moved our car & hotel reservation to the Doubletree last night as it is closest to freeway 36 ramp to Boulder and has the airport shuttle. That was a great last minute decision, though we were hoping to take a taxi out to dinner last night which didn't happen.

Today I-70 is closed in both direction today so is I-25 south (closed), but I-25 & I-36 north are open. TV says near blizzard condition in the plains, don't know where the plains are. We're going to pick up the car and drive to Boulder while it's open. Snow will intensify as the day goes now

Just drive slowly. There isn't much traffic on the roads. Once in Boulder, you can probably get around easier because it's smaller. Where are you staying in Boulder? I hope it's centrally located and you can get to a fabulous restaurant to feed your sorrows.

Peaceout: my wife added 2 luggage pieces for all our ski gears, so we can't travel by train, too many bags to haul, we'll stick to loading everything in the Camry to travel. We'll see about driving to the ski resort on Monday. We are enjoying the white winter surrounding, a fresh change of scenery.

Fmpden: yeah there is no way that we're going west today. Not possible.

Gretchen: you ARE lucky indeed! We're still having a nice family time together as we haven't seen our kids for almost 3 months.

I-70 is closed about 50 miles east of Denver. Everything east of Denver is consider the plains. In other words, the flat, or at least the flatter areas of the state. The wind and drifts just causes all kinds of problems so CDOT is quick to close. The last I saw I-70 west into the mountains is still open. You will be fine by Monday and most likely Sunday will be OK. We are on the south side of Denver on a ridge. The visibility is worse in the last hour and down to a quarter mile at best and less most of the time. The drift on my deck is at least four feet. Hoping for a wind shift so I don't have to shovel as much.

Watch the basketball games. I was hoping you had picked a downtown hotel. Today that would have been a great advantage.

Hey all you Denverites..Lived there for 10 years before returning to Calgary and remember those unpredicted snow falls (or deluges???) and miss The Mile High a great deal. Hope the DAX group loves the experience and BTW, Peaceout..jewels in your crown for your westen hospitality and generousity..( Is that spelled right??)!! We all can be such nice people and usually are.

I think our kids are in Frisco this weekend skiing and boarding.
Had dinner with our local crew that are all heading out. Peaceout--thanks again SO much for the vouchers!!
Amer--doesn't matter about spelling (but no!! LOL).

Hi All, we had a great day in Boulder today!
Our drive to Boulder was slow due to limited visibility, we passed a few crashed cars and witnessed one short chain car accident, but Boulder is very rewarding. The whole town looks like a christmas village scene from Dept 56 collectibles.

It seems that most hotels and restaurants are half empty (multiple cancellations) so we got a good discount for our rooms. We even got a saturday night dinner reservation at Frasca on short notice. We spent the afternoon exploring the entire downtown on foot despite the on & off snow flurries just because we didn't want to spend another day in the hotel. As we were walking back to rest we found a great french brasserie right across the street from our hotel. We just wanted to have a happy hour drink with some oysters, but hunger got the better of us, so came a couple dishes of bone marrow, a couple crepes, salumi, french sliders and 5 orders of their good steam mussels! We asked the concierge at the hotel to move our Frasca reservation to tomorrow. After a couple hours of rest, we drove to Hotel Boulderado for dessert (too cold/far to walk). We could not find any parking space anywhere near the Boulderado, so we gave up, maybe tomorrow.

Peaceout & Gretchen : Copper mountain has a special deal going, something like $240 for 4 tickets which you can buy at any Safeway. It's anounced on their website and today the Safeway in Boulder confirmed it.

DAX, so glad to hear you made it. It is a great feeling to make your destination in a storm like that. And Boulder is so picturesque. Good to know.

And today you have blue skies! That's Colorado.

Thanks for the Copper information. That is a better price than the vouchers give you, but make sure they are 4 tickets that can be used for 4 different people, on whatever days you want. Sometimes those deals are multi-day passes for a single user.

Have Fun! Keep checking in, if you can. It's fun to hear what you're doing.

That's good to hear as we're now deciding between Oak at 14th and Riff's for lunch. The local gallery on Pearl St highly highly recommended Riff's over Oak at 14th. Oak seems to be very noisy that we won't be able to chat at all, but I sure am curious about their pickle tempura and kale salad.

Peaceout: Boulder looks totally different today with the sun out! It's even better now that we can see the Rocky mountains from our bedrooms especially now that our daughter is sick with a fever in the room. Thankfully we're staying right in the middle of downtown, we feel less guilty leaving her in the hotel.

Thanks Peaceout, our daughter is feeling better now so we dragged her to Riff's but no she didn't like the menu so we walked to the Kitchen which I would be extremely happy with but they only serve brunch so I called our concierge who recommended a new organic italian place, Pasta Vino, right next door to the Kitchen. Their chef from Trieste in Friuli makes authentic italian pasta dishes that are great comfort food, light, modern, the kind that our Italian friends make at home. Every dish was spot on good but not exactly dishes to show off/brag about. I like our hotel concierge who used to be a chef in Hamburg, she always asks people what they like and then match her recommendations accordingly. Actually we really like the entire staff at St. Julien.

We'll try to drive to the Dushanbe for teatime later. I have to read up on Shine to figure it out since Frasca is closed on Sunday.

The St Julien is gorgeous. The Teahouse serves nice meals, too. I don't know if Shine would suit you for dinner.

The Flagstaff House is a Boulder classic with nice views. I don't know about the drive up Flagstaff Road, though, with snow. But at the top you can see a sweeping panorama of the Divide (in clear weather).

Another cool and unique restaurant is Gold Hill. But it would be a nightmare to drive there.

I am sure your concierge will have good ideas. Boulder is great for foodies.

Flagstaff was in my radar being number 1 on tripadvisor, but we ended up eating dinner at Jill's which is the hotel's restaurant due to our daughter's situation. Beautiful restaurant, nice service but the food was just OK, we can literally cook their dishes better at home .

My wife and I did walk to Dushanbe and we really enjoyed the exotic atmosphere and food, we only had bratwurst and short ribs, both very enjoyable though we wished we had ordered the incredibly aromatic peanut fettuccine. They had traditional ethnic live music starting but unfortunately we had to to go to feed the kids dinner. We took the Boulder Creek path back to our hotel which was the one simple thing that my wife had been wanting to do before dinner.

Nice you got to take the walk and the weather cooperated today.
The CU campus is great for walking, too.
The Sink is the burger joint where Obama visited, on the Hill across from campus.
Did you decide about skiing or going to a mountain resort?

Peaceout: My gut feeling is no skiing on this trip, we just have to come back now that we understand what's there. Thanks for all the ski vouchers and abundance of tips.

Boulder has been a great place for us to hang out in spite of the weather. Very unique, upscale, rich but liberal, plenty of homeless begging, there is a whole supportive community of them. Yet there are residents who are seriously proud of this town, they look down on Denver. The only thing we regret is the fact that we're missing out a lot on its most important outdoor aspects, so we need to come back for RMNP estes park etc.

TODAY we're planning to visit Celestial Seasonings before heading out to downtown Denver. My wife wants to stroll through CU if the temps are not too cold for DD. Last night was unbearable to be outdoor. Any suggestion for the shortest route with the most bang for our stroll through campus?

Yes you did, thanks, I have it in my notes. We decide not to ski because our daughter continues to have high fever as soon as the Advil expires. She's been deprived of sleep during her finals week before flying into Denver.

DAX, I don't want to over-sell the campus. It is one of our favorites, since we enjoy school settings and love the red stone and tile architecture. If you go, the we usually find easy street parking on University Ave, off Broadway (there's a Starbucks in a renovated gas station at that corner. That is the oldest part of campus, with Mackey Auditorium, the original school building, and the large Norlin quadrangle. Walk due east to the stadium. The student union is behind and o the right of the library, as you are facing it.

Too bad your DD isn't up to skiing, but there's no way around that.

It's funny that in your short visit, you picked up on the "they look down on Denver" feeling. It's always been that way. We lived in Boulder while I finished my grad school work, but after three years we were ready to move to Denver. Boulder is wonderful, but it is a bit 'homogenous'. Our Boulder friends think ALL the crime and pollution is in Denver. haha

PS Maybe today is a good day to do a 'drive by' with your DD in the car. Drive to Chautauqua Park for beautiful views of the Flatiron mountains, look at the old buildings, drive up the hill to Flagstaff and lookout on the Divide. It is probably snow-plowed now.

Sounds like a great idea! We're having lunch at the Dushanbe now and will drive to Chautauqua park before heading to Celestial Seasonings.
I asked all 3 concierge persons what is the latest trendiest lunch/dinner place to eat in Boulder, they all said: Oak at14 & Kitchen, but they don't really push them.

Hey, DenverCrown, what kind of total idiot are you? First of all you registered here then proceeded to ignore the rules you agreed to. This is not a site for advertising your scam limo company. Meanwhile you've totally screwed up this site by turning the US forum into strictly a Denver one.

We don't want you here. Go away. And hopefully no Fodorite with an IQ over 50 will even consider booking your cheesy limos!